Jose Reyes Signing Reactions

Before the Winter Meetings officially got underway, the Marlins struck the week's first major blow, agreeing to terms with Jose Reyes on a six-year, $106MM contract. Despite the shortstop's injury history, MLBTR's Tim Dierkes likes the signing for Miami, since Reyes "doesn't have to be amazing or play 162 games a year to be worth $17.67MM annually." Here's a round-up of a few more instant reactions to the deal:

While the Marlins took a risk committing over $100MM to Reyes, he has the potential to turn into a genuine bargain, writes Dave Cameron of Fangraphs.

Yahoo's Jeff Passan thinks the contract matches up favorably to Carl Crawford's deal, although "the idea of budget-conscious Mets and free-spending Marlins takes a minute to process."

ESPN.com's Keith Law (Insider link) views the contract as a big risk for Miami, arguing that, given Reyes' injury history, it seems "wildly optimistic" to assume he'll still be a viable shortstop by the end of the deal.

In another Insider piece, ESPN's Jim Bowden writes that Reyes provides the Marlins with a "much-needed dose of star power." Whereas Law saw the Mets as major winners in the process for avoiding a long-term risk, Bowden considers them the big loser in the deal.

I highly expect the rule for compensation to be amended here. Something just isn’t right. It’s almost like this wasn’t considered in new CBA deal and this error was just exposed. I’ll admit I don’t know enough about draft pick compensation, but the Mets are getting shafted and from the business side of it, it really just isn’t fair in my opinion. Bell rated higher than Reyes? I’m still having a tough time digesting that.

Im getting a little sick of Keith Law and Jim Bowden saying that teams are overpaying. Thats not something everybody already knows along with the Marlins or whoever is signing these guys. You have to overpay to land a big name free agent, end of story.

The Mets had no chance of competing by the trade deadline and knew they likely would not re-sign Reyes. They could have received an A+ prospect for Reyes in a trade pre-July 31 (they got Wheeler for Beltran for Christ’s sake!).

The Mets front office is absolutely moronic for not trading Reyes last year.

they should have traded him at the deadline. they got the giants BEST pitching prospect (and the giants are no slouches when it comes to having good farm talent with pitching) for an aging/declining beltran who is 36 years old. you can’t tell me they couldn’t have netted more for reyes!

Josh Johnson, Mike Stanton, Hanley Ramirez, and Jose Reyes missing 80-100 games *each* next season would be justice well served for the Mets only getting a third round pick for losing Reyes.

They should at LEAST get two in between picks if they cannot get the first or second round pick. That is absurd. The Marlins didn’t even LOSE their second round pick, the Mets are just getting screwed over.

The last time Keith Law liked a big-money free agent signing was never. I don’t even know why he gets asked to write about them, the answer will always be “that’s a big risk.” (Not saying he’s wrong by the way, just saying his answer is never a surprise.)

For all those hammering Alderson for not trading Reyes at the deadline, at what point do you factor in last season’s lost ticket sales and the loss of fan goodwill into your equation? After jettisoning K-Rod and Beltran, how does a trade of Reyes for a higher-level prospect than the draft pick compensation play to a fanbase and at the turnstiles….or is it all just fantasy baseball?

These things have to be taken into account when running a business…and I’m not hearing much of that here.

It certainly isn’t much of stretch to imagine that Reyes will be able to average a +4 WAR over the life of this contract. I don’t see where the skepticism lies. Yeah, he had an injury-plagued 2009 and a partially injury-plagued 2010. But he returned to full form as far as WAR production in 2011. Figure 3 years of +6, 2 years of +3 and a year of +1, and he’s at +25 WAR, right in line with the money.

People forget trading Reyes wasn’t going to happen. Teams make big moves
closer to the deadline. Unfortunately for the Mets, he went on the DL
July 2 and didn’t come back until July 19. And in the days leading up to
the deadline, he didn’t hit well at all (.250/.271/.393).

I’m a Met fan, but our fanbase is pretty stupid when it comes to things like this. The people who are saying they should have traded him today are the same ones who would have whined non-stopped had he been. They have very short memories, overpaying for free agents is what contributed to this current mess to begin with. Blame Madoff all you want, but that had nothing to do with all the injuries and under performance the last 3 seasons. These short-sighted fans want to be like the Yankees and sign every free agent. However, I’d prefer to be like the 1996-1999 Yankees, take time developing a good team and have sustained success, allowing you to eventually sign more top free agents.